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Sunday, February 2, 2014

PUUUURRRRRFECT. AMAZEBALLS. AWE-EFFIN-SOME, MAGNI-FRIGGIN-CENT!!! What more adjectives do you guys need to make you understand that you have to read this series? IT'S IMPERATIVE THAT YOU READ IT!!! Do it! Grab it right now!

This series has been close to my heart for the longest time. Maybe it's because ahem, ahain, I love the X-men. I love action. I love powers and I love romance. This book has them all and then some more. I was completely good with the endong of the second book, but since there's a third, who am I to complain? haha. I didn't even know that there's a third book coming until very recently when a friend tagged me (you know who you are! thanks!). This has been a joyful and exciting ride for me. The best was knowing that Ms. Wright will give these characters a happily ever after. I knew that based on the pattern of her past books, so I was pretty comfortable.

The story here follows up pretty much to where they left off in the last book. They were to be crowned as the "high couple" and they were having a hard time preparing for that. Of course with all the complications like: vampire-turned-zombie-like beings, Umbridge-like people from the Prelature which somehow reminds me (forgive me for the Harry Potter terminologies) a lot of The Ministry of Magic... they were not able to focus a lot on the coronation.

Sam is still a homicidal bitch. She likes hurting mean people, but in this book, she had to have a lot of self control. Her status as a hybrid helped her a lot in this book, so I'm really thankful that the brothers in book 2 didn't reverse what they did to her. It helped her make a statement on the other vampires. Pf course, Jared is also thankful for it. Unfortunately, this book also showed both Jared's and Sam's weaknesses. They were both jealous in this book and they both lacked self preservations. I'm just glad that they're bond seems to be extra strong, so there's not a chance of them leaving each other.

It was very good to read about the squad again. They're loyalty is still as unwavering as ever and they are still hilarious. I love how they proved to be very good soldiers and I really love how they respect Sam.

The other chacters were very essential to he growth of this series. I like the powers of Ava and Paige. I hope to see more of them. I know this is the last of Jared's and Sam's books, but I'm truly hoping that the author will give us more of the other characters' stories. That will mean everything! ♥

There are just some books wherein you'd want to know what the guy's thoughts are. This is one of them for me. Especially in Jared's case. Jared was a bully and he was hateful. However, he had his reasons. I'm not saying that they're all good. It just... makes sense.

The plot pretty much follows what's in BULLY, but it follows Jared's thoughts, so it clears up A LOT of things. When I read Bully, I wished for a book in Jared's thoughts. I guess I got my wish huh? I even thought that the author would just give some kind of a novella like what happens to other books with a .5. When I opened this book, imagine my shock and delight! haha! It is long! ^_^

Anyway, on to JARED...

Jared... is a troubled soul. You won't exactly like him. He's a bully. He did what he did because of pure selfish reasons. He made the life of his best friend feel like hell. He bullied her through and through. He bullied her because he felt envious and he felt insecure. Somewhere in between being friends and the bullying and being sort of friends again, he fell in love with her. That made everything more complicated...and awesome! When he realized everything, I wanted to jump for joy because man... the thoughts of a man in love is THAT GOOD. Not that it erases all the hurtful stuff that he did cuz it doesn't. In this book, he learns to make it up to her. I actually want him to make it up to her for all of his life because Tate deserves it. lol.

His friend Madoc sure is a good guy btw. He set himself up to be the "bad guy" when he just actually wants what's best for his friend and I love him for that. :)

This is a very good book about turning over a new leaf and making up for your past sins. Jared learned here that not everything is ruled by the past and that it's better to dwell on the positive than the negative.

This book is also timely because of the "bullying" topic plus the online media craze.

Must read for those who loved Bully and for those who'd like to know the thoughts of the bully himself.

Don't get me wrong, there is steam in this book. It's just that the characters did so much pushing and pulling that they weren't able to get to it right away.

Anyway, right onto the plot! I will always say that I love Seth's story, however, Sam and Jules' story is more complex and more meaningful than the first book. The complications here are deeper and honestly, I don't know if everything's been taken care of. It still had a good ending though.

Sam had to deal with his dad's illness and a lot more. He's broody and thinks that he needs to fix everyhing. Jules had to deal with an ex who's unfotunately an addict and has been extorting money from her. She's a straight forward woman with such a big heart. They are really quite a pair. They both have insecurities and they're both hot. haha. I love how they are somehow a couple-not-a-couple.

The best thing about this book is that jt will make you laugh. It's too hilarious. I think I will never forget the "ELI PICTURE" part as well as their shooting game. :) I had fun laughing with Jules in many scenes. She's a riot. X is also something else. I seriously can't wait until that guy gets his book. I love him and how he seems to be such a know it all when it comes to his friends' love lives. Hah! We'll see how he handles his own.

This book is like a slow build up of emotions.You already know what's bound to happen and you just feel happy for them in the end. ♥

Imagine meeting a guy over the internet and just spilling your guts to him from then on... Now imagine meeting him and suddenly knowing that he's a famous movie star. Wow right? This book is just that.

The characters were so cute together. They made me laugh with their weird emails, useless trivias and just plain conversations. They were too young to think of so many complicated stuff, but they were able to manage it quite well.

The plot was a bit cheesy, but I guess all people need cheese! :) It's also nice reading about young people having grown up problems and solving it with simple things.

The ending was a bit open ended. I'm not complaining about it because the story deserves it. There are just so many things that can happen to both of them. I'm just happy to know that they have their happy-ending-ish ending. ;)

This book is full of surprises. All good, I can promise you that. ★★★★★★★★★★

Rome is a character that I've been waiting for so long to meet. He was the responsible one back in Rule's book, so I was looking forward to him. As it turns out, Rome is really a good character and his book is so colorful, it'll make you see black, red, pink, green etc..

To me, this was a colorful read because even though it's indeed full of angst, it also made me laugh hard. It made me mad and it also made me want to look up pictures of military guys just so I can drool over them. ;p

My dear Rome is lost without his military people beside him. He misses having something to do and he misses having a concrete purpose. He was having such a sour time and he was acting all mean and hulkish when suddenly, my punk rock pixie, Cora enters his life.

With Cora as the heroine, this book surely had me captivated. I love her character because she's so.. TINKERBELL ish. She helps people out with relationship or personal problems. She couldn't resist helping Rome too and that worked out well because I think they really needed each other.

One thing led to another and they were obviously on the same boat. Love was inthe air, but Rome was the first one to admit it. That took guts. I love it that he ditched the norm of commitmentphobes. Once he got his shit straight, he was "all in".

The complication regarding Cora's feelings wasn't really that big of a deal to me. I knew she'll pull herself together. However, the complication regarding the biker dudes... THAT, I didn'see coming. I swear, I cried for him! I can honestly say that I loved Rome more at the end of this book. He's a real hero and his actions is something that a reader like me can be proud of.

The plot surely felt well-thought-of. The connections, the surprises as well as the closures that the characters got were all nicely woven that I even jumped for joy in some of them. ^_^

This book sure is made of something amazing. It made me feel good inside. I'm also happy for the bits and pieces of information that I got about the other characters. I'm glad they're doing well. :)

♥Looking forward to Nash's book as well as Rowdy's and maybe someday, Asa. :)

It's hard to find a bestfriends-turned-lovers book nowadays which is worth the time. This one definitely fit the bill!

Olivia and Nate have such chemistry that it felt like the whole book is sizzling with it. I love how they do things together, at first at friends and then lovers. The push-pull theme in Braden and Joss' case was nothing compared to the push-pull in this book.

The characters were so good with each other. Olivia is the not-so-outgoing-I-feel-so-insecure girl and Nate is the I'm-so-outgoing-and-I'm-so-hot-and-I-know-it guy. As friends, these two were hilarious. Their relationship was platonic at first. Then suddenly, boom! It's not so platonic anymore. haha. I love how Olivia stood up for what she deserves. She has guts. I mean, she jumped through fire to take on what's between the two of them knowing that Nate probably won't reciprocate. She loved the guy right away and Nate... ugh! If I didn't know any better now, I would probably hate his character still. LOL. He has issues the size of a bulldozer. I'm glad that he came to his senses.

Anyway, the best scenes here for me is when Olivia was already pulling away from Nate. I knew what's going to happen next, but that didn't stop me from saying "YOU GO GIRL!" whenever Nate gets jealous or something. I was a gleeful reader in those parts. I love that Olivia resisted for so long to get what she really did deserve.

It had a pretty good ending. I love it! What else can I expect from the author of On Dublin Street eh? All of her plots somewhat get to me like they're all from real life. Good job!

Good sequel. Frankly speaking, I was skeptic about this book because aside from having the lamest name (a chocolate energy drink, really Miss Crane? I love you, but you can do better than that! Haha!), I thought that Milo is a selfish jerk and it was hard to imagine him having his happily ever after with him being like that. In my defense, he really was a jerk. Anyway, I gave it a shot and I did enjoy his book. I just read Wide Spaces and I believe that the timeline is pretty well written. It picks up while and after that book. Mason's insecurity regarding Milo is still fresh to me, so you can just imagine my hatred towards Milo for being so self absorbed. I guess I should really forgive his character for that because he was young and stupid. I was so glad when it came to the part wherein he's saying that he got help from a pastor and a shelter. I believe that he really wanted to change. Then came the heroine. What can I say about Maya? Aside from being far from being perfect, she's also very, very AND I MEAN VERY UNLUCKY. It bears repeating because seriously, life hadn't been kind to the girl. She experienced blow after blow of unluckiness. You might think that these are just plain, simple unluckiness, but no. All of her family members seem to die out in front of her. Her mom, her dad, dead... And now her brother is also dying. A girl can only take so much. Honestly, I don't believe that there's a girl as strong as her in real life. She lost so much, and yet she's still willing to give hope and help to others. I guess her only problem here is that she's afraid to open up because of her reservations regarding loved ones leaving her. I admire her character. Actually, she's kinda like Emma. The Emma before coma was also kind of a bitch ass princess right? This time, Maya is a reformed addict. Both girls have strong pasts that they overcame. Anyway, bad things happen here after another, it's actually full of angst, push and pulls... As in they push away each other many times, but they never manage to stay away. Lol. Even though this book may make you feel exhausted because of the angst and push-pulls, you'd also enjoy their relationships. The characters have such vivid roles that you can't see them as anything but what the author wants them to be. The plot is also good... Well, nothing beats WIDE AWAKE for me, but this one comes out as a good number 2. Once again, I'm glad I gave it a shot. Good read. :)

I think this book has garnered all emotions a person can have. I was skeptic, interested, happy, sad, angry, frustrated, hateful, shocked, terrified, shoe-throwing-mad, hair-pulling-livid with the characters. With the way this book made me feel, it deserves a good rating. I think it means that I really felt what I read and that's a rare thing.

The premise of having best friends fall in love in a book is not a new thing to me. The guy was so obvious about it. He mentioned it whenever he can. However, the girl's stubbornness here and her reason behind being stubborn about their relationship is WAYYYY EPIC. She really resisted! LIKE A LOT. I hated her! I wanted to pull her hair because she didn't want the guy "THAT WAY" or so she says, but she also didn't want the guy to be with anyone else! WELL TOUGH LUCK. The guy isn't such a saint. lol. She was so insecure that she let her insecurity rule her life. Until she got sick, that is. I seriously cried in the scenes near the end of this book. I cried because their circumstance is so unfair and the girl was still being dead stubborn. Thank God for that friend who enlightened her about life. I also cried in that scene btw. haha. I know, I know... the waterworks..gosh. Finally, the girl got past her insecurities. I think that was the only time that I was able to breathe freely in this book.

It ended on a happy note, and frankly, that's all that matters to me.

This is a very entertaining read. It's also full of morals and do's and dont's for guy+girl bestfriends. LOL. :)

I really set myself up to finish this book on the first day of January. I figured, why not start the new year with a bang? I was not wrong. I succeeded in choosing the best book to start my year off.

Broken Dove is a book that I've been waiting for ever since I started this series. I had so many speculations whether I'd hate Apollo or feel sorry for Ilsa. As it turns out, my worries weren't ever necessary. Kristen Ashley gave two strong characters again. They were not perfect, in fact, I kinda believe that these two are the weakest among the couples because of the way their pairing started. However, they made reading this book worthwhile because they admitted their imperfections. KA showed us the ugly side of a relationship here. She also showed that where there is ugliness, there's always beauty.

How do I describe Apollo and Maddie (yes, Maddie)? Whirlwind. These two were a such a whirlwind that I had to stop a few times to say "Now that was too fast!". One must understand that these two are already connected one way or another before they even met. They were what the other was looking for way before their story started, so as a reader, I forgive their whirlwind-ness.

Maddie had such a traumatic past with Apollo's other world twin that it was hard to trust Apollo at first. Apollo is of course, still grieving his wife who looked exactly like Maddie, so we can just imagine how he felt. What a pair right? They managed to get past that FAST and thus, their romance begin.

The plot was more complicated than the other books. This time, it's more focused on the war.

Honestly, it was like watching a soap opera. Connivance, betrayals, loyalties etc by the people around them. The issue of Maddie looking like the deceased wife was totally explored. It was just normal, I guess, but it was still annoying to some extent especially when it was Apollo's child who was affected by it. I'm glad that it was resolved. There was also a matter of guys falling for Maddie and Maddie helping a friend out with her own love story. Gosh, there are just so many things to take note of in this book.

A LOT OF THINGS SHOULD ALSO BE SAID ABOUT HOW HOT THIS BOOK IS. The steamy scenes, I can say, compared to the other books are off the charts. I think. It rivals the scenes in Golden Dynasty, and those were intense! hot hot hot ;D

There were also some action parts wherein the guys were all heroes. I loved reading about how the other couple's are fairing. I love how the other characters were all here and were all necessary to the story.

Of course, this book is also humorous. I love how each character finds the bright side of things. :)

I guess all I can do now is wait for Noc's story. My hero from the normal world. :) Hey hotstuff! See you next time!

All in all, I love this book. I love this series and I still totally love Kristen Ashley. This is indeed, a good start for my year! :D